WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s pledge to lead a global effort raising $100 billion a year to help poor nations combat climate change may be an early casualty of the Republican takeover of Congress.
Lawmakers set to gain roles in setting policy, such as Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., have questioned spending U.S. dollars on the effort, a linchpin of efforts to win a global pact fight global warming. Inhofe, who has decried climate- change science and is the probable next chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, has said the funding is a misguided foreign aid effort.
Obama needs the Republican Congress to approve U.S. contributions to the effort, conceived five years ago as part of United Nations-led negotiations on an agreement to cut greenhouse-gas emissions.